I do think Gracie has made improvements under Frank so far, particularly in her presentation. She's a little less stiff, the samurai sword arms have calmed down a little bit, and she did look more relaxed in the SP. However, she was right back to regular old nervous Gracie in the FS. Only two of her jumping passes were clean (3L and 2A-2T-2T); every other jump was tight b/c she was nervous. The program slowly unraveled but she managed to barely hang on and not completely fall to pieces. I do think she kept the program up better (didn't go 100% blank in the face) which is good but overall, that was not a good performance by the standards she is being held to. That said she still scored very well and landed on the podium but this was a missed opportunity for Gracie.
Maybe it's because I didn't watch it in real-time (I watched it the day after), but I don't agree that the mistakes she made in the middle of the program were wholly due to nerves. To me the errors in the middle she made were a lack of focus. She did not look especially tense after she made those mistakes and got up pretty quickly after making them.
Lack of focus isn't good either, but the errors she made seem like ones you make when you're not 100 percent focused. I do think she was nervous at the beginning, hence the relative tightness of her 3Z-3T and the 2A error, but I though she looked a lot more relaxed as the program went on.
You're right that it was not a good performance as far as what she is capable of doing, but I think she looked pretty calm when she was done and in the Kiss and Cry she didn't look all that dejected about getting bronze (neither was Frank).
Lack of focus is usually a result of nerves IMO. You're nervous so you start thinking about other things and instead of focusing on what you need to do. Gracie was tight pretty much the entire time. She got tighter and more nervous as the program went on: the tilted abrupt landing on the flip, followed by a fall on the lutz and the complete lost-in-the-air miss on the 3S...I think she was lucky the program ended when it did.
Well I think in any case, I don't think it was a complete meltdown. That was SLC. This was not a great performance, but it wasn't terrible either. 117+ is not a bad score considering the mistakes.
...but Ashley is the superior competitor. She has the focus and mental toughness Gracie lacks. There's no guarantee Gracie will ever gain that mental toughness/focus. If/when she does she will probably be unstoppable...but as of now, Ashley's consistency and competitiveness trump Gracie's potential greatness.
Recent article on Ashley Wagner
Wagner's programs are weaker than previous ones.
So her high PCS are equally undeserving.
Gold's PCS is ridiculous.
SS should be 7.5 to 8.
TR should be 7 to 7.5
CH should be 4
PE should be a 4.5 to 5
IN should be 3
Ashley
SS should be 7 to 7.5
TR should be 7 to 7.5
CH should be 6 (really, her LP is not good)
PE should be 6
IN should be 6
Gold's superior TES should pull her ahead. But barely.
Now, if Wagner has better programs, I can see if both are clean, Wagner should come out ahead.
In my opinion Gracie needs to work on keeping her arms under control, to much flying around.